


insomnia

by moonrise31



Series: once, twice, and again until it's over [10]
Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-09
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-05-19 23:48:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14883588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonrise31/pseuds/moonrise31
Summary: In which Nayeon would fight an entire small-town conspiracy if it will keep Jihyo's smile.Alternatively, in which Mina believes in something better, and Sana believes in Mina.





	1. close your eyes if it helps

**Author's Note:**

> The playlist for this includes "Diamonds in the Dark" by Dark Waves, "Texas" by Magic Man, and "Trojans" by Atlas Genius. Because yes, this has been sitting in my drafts long enough for me to go through three songs of the month

Jihyo is too pretty for this, Nayeon thinks. For the deep dark tunnels winding for kilometers below the surface, caked in earth and damp and the heaviness of an entire village trying to strong-arm their way to better things.

Which things are better, exactly, Nayeon isn't so sure of at the moment. 

"Unnie," Chaeyoung calls over another wheelbarrow piled high with rubble. 

Nayeon blinks as the word echoes limply off the cavern walls. She shakes her head, glancing briefly at the younger woman's dusty face, and wonders how Chaeyoung's eyes somehow still manage to sparkle even though the rest of her smile is darkened in the dim yellow lighting. Nayeon hefts her shovel and steps aside so Chaeyoung can dump the pile where her feet used to be. 

"Daydreaming again?" Chaeyoung teases as she rights the wheelbarrow once more. 

"I think that's more your job," Nayeon says. She pushes her spade through the rocks and dirt, sifting mindlessly as she tries to catch a glimpse of anything that isn't as dull as stone. "Still nothing, huh?"

"The entire town's only been mining for more than ninety years," says Chaeyoung, voice flattening like she's got her tongue in her cheek. "There's almost no more 'nothing' to find at this rate, you know?"

"Any day now, then," Nayeon agrees as she drives the head of her shovel into the pile with the heel of her boot. She scoops up a load and dumps it into the empty debris trolley waiting on the tracks beside them.

“Make way!” 

Jihyo’s voice ricochets off the rock that sits more than a kilometer thick above their heads. Then there's the echo of her clunky boots thumping through the jagged corridors, and the empty trolley she's pushing in front of her creaks alarmingly along the tracks. It skids to a stop just before it rams into the one Nayeon is filling; metal screeches against metal, and Nayeon swears she sees sparks.

"Jihyo-unnie," Chaeyoung says mildly over the ringing in their ears, "we aren't in a rush or anything."

"Not to move rocks, maybe," Jihyo agrees. "But I had an appointment to keep."

Nayeon blinks. "Appointment?" Jihyo's face is suddenly just a centimeter away from hers, and Nayeon can only stare in return. She's going at least a little bit cross-eyed, too, if Jihyo's giggle is telling her anything.

Their faces are all smudged and streaked with sweat and grime, but Nayeon can't find it anywhere in herself to complain when Jihyo’s head tilts up to press their lips together.

"See you later," Jihyo says brightly as she steps back again. She throws Nayeon a wink as Chaeyoung makes exaggerated gagging noises in the background.

Jihyo is too pretty for this, Nayeon thinks through a mind now filled with cotton fluff and tingling promises, almost dazed enough to miss the slight limp Jihyo runs back into the tunnels with. But its existence has already tattooed itself firmly into the very bottom of her subconscious, so Nayeon still sees it long after Jihyo has been swallowed whole by pitch black rock and shadow.

"Wow," Chaeyoung comments. "She really _does_ have you wrapped around her little finger, doesn't she?" And books it out of sight before Nayeon can pound her into the ground with her shovel.

\---  
\--  
-

(There will always be accidents. It's part of living life in a town that spends most of its waking hours underground. But even in this community, so close-knit that Nayeon can practically feel the elbows of her neighbors digging into her sides with every breath, there's still a difference between "this is _us_ " and "that is _them_ ".

So there will always be accidents in these cursed tunnels, but there will always be only one that matters.

Nayeon doesn't think much of the immediate aftermath. Of the hurricane panic, of her heart plummeting a hundred meters beneath her feet, when she heard of the sector that had just collapsed in an avalanche of dust and rock and agony. She doesn't dwell on the hours she'd anxiously hovered by the taped off entrance while rescue workers struggled to retrieve any survivors.

Only a few were lucky enough to stumble out on their own. And Jihyo, of course, is much too pretty to be lucky, too.

Nayeon also refuses to remember how her breath had caught just behind her gritted teeth as she spotted Jihyo's pale face lying between the handles of a stretcher. The knees of the younger's work pants are stained darker than Nayeon's blackest nightmares. 

The first moment Nayeon really cared to commit to memory was when Jihyo caught her stare from among a crowd of dozens, and gave her a watery smile.

Work went on around the collapsed sector beginning the very next day, but Nayeon spent every other waking hour at Jihyo's bedside -- because Jihyo's parents are selfless to a fault and allowed Nayeon to be the one always holding Jihyo close.

Like parents, like daughter, Nayeon knows.

She remembers the first night after the accident, too, after the wailing ambulances and the countless hospital rooms that had been scrubbed into a blinding white. She remembers Jihyo, eyes glassy, reaching out from the cocoon of her bedroom quilt, fingers trembling even as Nayeon threaded them with her own. "Please," Jihyo breathed. "Please, don't leave."

"You idiot." Nayeon's scoff came out more as a shaky exhale, but she covered it by carefully sliding herself into the space that Jihyo, with noticeable effort, had rolled over to make. "You almost left first."

"I know," Jihyo whispered, tugging their joined hands to rest Nayeon's knuckles on her cheek. Her eyes fluttered closed as Nayeon's free fingers combed through matted hair. "I know it makes me a horrible person, but." Her fingertips massaged apologies into the back of Nayeon's hand. "If it comes down to it, I'd rather be the one to leave than the one who's left behind."

And Nayeon could do nothing but pull Jihyo closer. Because she didn't know how else to remedy what Jihyo shrinks into when she's not full of prancing jibes and kiss-tinted laughter. Nayeon felt her lungs constrict with every heavy heartbeat, like they were trying to squeeze out all that Nayeon feels for Jihyo every moment, every day. All that she feels for even the simplest things that Jihyo does, like patting Dahyun's shoulder in the emergency room right after the doctor had finished stitching her up, and then hugging the younger woman even though it meant pressing the smock, the one she herself had stained crimson, right into her chest --

\-- settling Momo and Sana's daily squabbles that aren't really squabbles, but honestly everyone knows that the only reason those two still have a roof over their heads is because Jihyo is stubbornly holding it down for them --

\-- putting up with Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung's lame joke routine, and teasing Mina even though they all know that the latter's bite is actually much worse than her bark, at least as far as competitions are concerned; but Mina would never find it in herself to hurt Jihyo, and Nayeon completely understands.

...And, leaving a basket of cookies on the Chous' doorstep every Saturday, even though Tzuyu hasn't talked to them since high school.

"I'm sorry," Jihyo whispered, curling closer still. "I shouldn't ask that of you."

Nayeon cleared her throat, lifting her free arm to pull the covers more securely around them. "You're not."

Jihyo's grip tightened, shaking until it rattled Nayeon's knuckles. 

"You're not," Nayeon said, "a horrible person." She dipped her head down, nudging Jihyo's forehead with her own until their eyes met. “You’re beautiful. And neither one of us is leaving, alright?"

When Jihyo's sister peeked in before heading off to school the next morning, she made a face at Nayeon in Jihyo's bed, arms still wrapped snugly around Jihyo's softly sleeping form. And Nayeon's chest felt light enough for her to make a face right back.

She was light enough to whirl them through another month, more or less, until Jihyo was due to return to the hospital. Dahyun assured them the crutches were only temporary, that there’d be a few weeks at most before Jihyo would be able to stand unaided. 

"That's all I needed to hear," Jihyo said, beaming at the doctor. Nayeon, meanwhile, could only stare at the patient's trembling legs, and know that she hadn't been the only one to hear Dahyun carefully not mention anything about walking.

Those uncertain tremors were why Nayeon found herself on the steps of Jeongyeon's house that evening. "It's not fair," she whispered, the words digging their claws in and scratching her throat raw even as she spit them out. "Once she's off the crutches, she'll have to go right back to digging. Like nothing’s happened. Like nothing ever will again. And we all know that's complete _bullshit_." Her teeth ached, but she couldn't stop her jaw from clenching. "Is this really how things are supposed to be?"

"I don't know," Jeongyeon said, honest and quiet. Her grip around Nayeon strengthened, and Nayeon felt the other shake with the same despair that's already drilled a hole inside her deeper than any of these damn tunnels.

The guilt tugged at her insides, then. Because Jeongyeon loves Jihyo too, and Jeongyeon doesn't deserve any of it: scrambling at the jagged walls of this damp dark pit they've been born into calling home, or continuously clearing her throat so it's only Nayeon's tears soaking into the fabric of Jeongyeon's shirt.

Jeongyeon is too strong for this. Just as Dahyun is too smart, and Chaeyoung is too bright. Sana is too loving, Momo too faithful, Mina too brave, and Tzuyu -- 

Tzuyu, Nayeon thinks, is simply too good to have been thrown into the middle of it all.

"Hey." Jihyo hobbled her way towards them and stopped just in front of the steps, leaning heavily on one of her crutches as she recovered her breath. "You two seem awfully close. Should I be worried?"

Jeongyeon wrinkled her nose. "Don't be gross. My game is worth _infinitely_ more than anything this one can bring." She dutifully ignored Nayeon's snort. "No offense."

"None taken," Jihyo said lightly even as she dropped down beside Nayeon. Nayeon's already reaching out to help soften the landing, but Jihyo only rolled her eyes. And then threw herself pointedly into the older girl’s side just to prove that she's not made of glass.

Nayeon's entire body drove straight into Jeongyeon, who accordingly pushed back just as hard, and before Nayeon knew it she was _very_ securely sandwiched between her two best friends. But Jihyo's arm was busy curling around her waist, finger drawing lazy swirls into the cloth covering her hip, and the crook of Jeongyeon's elbow had never left the hunch of her shoulders.

Nayeon swallowed the last of her tears, and felt the hole inside of her fill just a little from the weight. Because she's decided that she's going to get them out of here. 

All of them.) 

-  
\--  
\---

Nayeon happens to be walking right by the Chou household when it happens. 

It’s a quiet affair, really: Mina walking out calmly, straight-backed and with a grace unmirrored by the two uniformed men behind her. They’re holding her solidly by the arms, but --

Nayeon stares, rooted to her spot across the street, as the men escort Mina to the waiting vehicle parked outside. Mina, meanwhile, stares right back, and only breaks eye contact when she’s forced to duck her head into the backseat. 

It’s not until the car has rumbled to life and turned the corner that Nayeon realizes she’s just witnessed Mina getting arrested. 

The first thing Nayeon does is run to the Dojo -- a silly name they'd come up with as children, because somehow the only three Japanese families in town all ended up crammed into the same house. Chaeyoung had worried from the start that it would be insensitive, but a worked up Sana had declared it was either that or "Mount Fuji".

Sana has always been like that. If she thinks about it, Nayeon can count the number of times she's seen Sana actually upset all on one hand, at most two. But now, she takes a deep breath before knocking once, twice on the front door.

It's Sana who answers. "You knew," she says lowly. 

Nayeon shivers to remind herself that the other woman doesn't actually tower over her by any meaningful amount. She shifts from one foot to another, and then crosses her arms. "You did too. Or you wouldn't be angry about the news I haven't even told you."

Sana meets her halfhearted glare for a moment, and then sighs. "Yeah." She steps aside to let Nayeon in.

Momo is sitting on the couch, hunched over and hugging her knees to her chest, when they pad quietly into the living room. Nayeon clears her throat.

"So, I guess Mina got into trouble for knowing the secret," is all Momo mumbles into her kneecaps.

Nayeon frowns. "Secret?"

Sana crosses her arms. "She didn't tell you? Then how did you know?"

"She just told me that she might get in trouble, not _why_." Nayeon steps closer. "What secret, Momo?"

Sana starts to shake her head. "Momo, you shouldn't." 

"I talked to Tzuyu the other day."

Nayeon stiffens. Tries not to think about the bedroom curtains on the second floor of the Chou house falling closed once Mina had been driven away. "What does she have to do with this?"

"You know, unnie," Sana sighs quietly, "there's a reason she stopped talking to us after she got into high school."

"Yeah," Nayeon snorts. "Because her dad's one of the town's political big shots and she needed to keep her nose clean. So what?"

"She knows the secret too," says Momo.

Nayeon rolls her eyes. "Wonderful. So what is it?"

"Unnie." Sana steps closer, gaze finally softening, but into something quietly broken. "No one's supposed to know it for a reason. And it might not be good if Jihyo found out -- "

"Keep her out of this," Nayeon almost snarls. 

Sana only blinks. "If you and I can still see her limp, unnie, how do you think _she_ feels about it?"

Nayeon stills. Balls up her fists and swallows, hard.

Momo suddenly chuckles. "You still want to know what the secret is, right, unnie?" she asks, looking up. Her eyes dance with the kind of mirth that tears a person apart from deep inside, shaking them until the humor cracks and falls and leaves only a shattered shell behind.

" _Yes_." Nayeon throws her hands up in the air. "Yes I do. What is this _huge_ secret that Jihyo got her knees busted seven different ways for and made Tzuyu ignore us these past five years and got Mina fucking _arrested_?" 

“Okay, here it is, then.” Momo leans closer, skewed grin dropping along with her voice. "There's no oneirium."

Nayeon stares. "You're joking." 

"There isn't any," Momo repeats, monotone only cracking at the very ends of her sentences. "There never was, and there never will be."

"You can't be serious." Nayeon shakes her head. "We've been mining those stupid tunnels for years. _Generations_."

Momo doesn't reply. Sana remains completely still. 

Nayeon scoffs. Crosses her arms. "Hirai Momo, this isn't funny."

"Do I look like I'm laughing?" Momo says.

Sana's stare is even softer, now.

It's a joke after all, then, Nayeon decides. That their village is named after the cursed material they will apparently never find. 

"Do you know what 'oneirium' means?" Momo asks. 

Nayeon can only shake her head.

"I didn't either." Momo's mouth quirks upwards. "But Mina told me that the definition of 'oneir' is _'dream'_."

And Nayeon wonders if there's a rule against how ironic a situation can really be.

\---  
\--  
-

(It was after one of Nayeon's more grueling shifts, her face and elbows so covered with grime that she stayed behind in the locker rooms to scrub off at least some of the failure clinging to her skin.

A soft touch landed on her shoulder, like a brush of cotton candy fingers. "Unnie?"

Nayeon immediately turned and smiled. "Hey, Mina."

Admittedly, Nayeon isn't as close to Mina as she is with Sana or Momo, and Mina spends the most time with Sana now that the two of them are an item. But Nayeon still fondly remembers the days when Mina would come to her specifically, the younger's nose slightly runny and knees well-scraped, and ask Nayeon to help Momo up from where they'd fallen at the bottom of the slide in the park.

"Unnie," Mina said again, more than a decade after those playground afternoons. "Could you do me a favor?"

"It'll cost you," Nayeon teased, just so Mina would laugh and nudge her in the shoulder. "Anything. Ask away."

Mina's expression slipped into one of careful blankness, but Nayeon caught the younger woman's fingers clasped together, weaving restlessly in a nervous habit Mina has never been able to shake. "I might get into some trouble soon."

Nayeon raised her eyebrows. "What kind of trouble?"

"Some," Mina said. "That's not what I need your help with. I just -- " She cleared her throat. "Can you take care of Sana-unnie for me? And Momo-unnie? If it happens." She glanced to the side, fidgeting fingers now fluttering to the hem of her tunnel-stained shirt. "I mean, Momo-unnie will take care of Sana-unnie if I'm gone. But they're so good at taking care of each other that they're _bad_ at it, because they'll be worrying too much, even though they don't need to, and -- "

Nayeon thought of the battered knees of a brave six-year-old trying not to cry until after she'd gotten help for her unnie. A couple tears had still managed to leak out of Mina's eyes, then, but eight-year-old Nayeon would never tell. 

So in that dim, grungy locker room just outside of the sector Jihyo avoids like the plague, Nayeon reached out and gently pulled Mina's hands apart, holding one in each of her own. She waited until the other met her gaze again before she smiled. "Okay."

"Okay," Mina breathed, eyes fluttering closed as her shoulders lost some of their tension.

"Hey," Nayeon said softly, and Mina opened her eyes again. "Are you sure about this?"

Mina nodded, only once. "I have to."

"Alright," said Nayeon, squeezing Mina's hands slightly before letting them go. "As long as you're sure."

And it was easy to watch Mina walk away, Nayeon discovered, when the other woman did so with a back still unbent even after years of ducking into caverns and hauling debris, limbs unblemished by even one of the many bandaids she'd always sported from tumbling around before any of them were old enough to know better. Now, Mina glided smoothly along, only to dig her heels in when nothing else would serve as an anchor for this little ship they call their circle of friends, this thing they'd called inevitability. 

It would be so easy to fall in love with Mina, Nayeon thought to herself then. But for Sana, it had been that way from the very start.)

-  
\--  
\---

"Hey." Jihyo hovers over the lump in the bed that is Im Nayeon. She gives the older woman another shake. "Sana's at the door."

Nayeon blearily blinks, taking in Jihyo's blurry figure and how she's already got a sweatshirt tugged over her pajamas. Nayeon instinctively hugs her arms closer just to check, and meets only empty space. Groggily, she wonders how Jihyo had managed to slip away without waking her up. 

"I know you're tired," Jihyo apologizes gently, worrying at the edge of her sweatshirt sleeve. "But Sana says it's really important."

That's enough to get Nayeon out of bed. Jihyo drapes a blanket over her, and smiles when the sleepier woman drowsily pulls it around herself. She buries her nose into the fabric -- they're at Nayeon’s tonight, so the blanket is hers, but it’s designated as Jihyo’s and accordingly smells of fresh strawberries picked on a clean summer morning. Nayeon pushes back a yawn and shuffles into the hallway after the younger woman.

Sana has stepped over the threshold and into the entrance hallway in the minutes Jihyo has been gone. Momo -- determined even as she rubs sleep from her eyes with the knuckles of one gently curled fist -- is just behind.

"So," says Nayeon after a beat. “What's going on?"

Sana smiles, and it's a little sharper than when she used to propose bicycle races down the hill in the park, or a night with just a little too much alcohol when they still had class -- and as the years went by, work -- the next day. Nayeon's not sure how much she's going to like what Sana says next.

"We're going to stage a jailbreak."


	2. and think of brighter stars

"You can't just _do_ that," is Nayeon's immediate reaction to Sana's admittedly bold proposal. "Breaking someone out of jail isn't as easy as a snap of your fingers. Or even two snaps."

"I know that," Sana says cheerfully. "This isn't some fairy tale. But that doesn't mean we can't try to plan one."

"Do you know _how_ to stage a jailbreak?" Jihyo asks, more curious than anything. She nudges a sharp elbow into Nayeon's side when the older woman huffs in exasperation.

"No," Momo answers for Sana. "But Tzuyu might."

"So she's talking to you now?" Nayeon's voice is gruff.

"Believe it or not," Jihyo says lightly, "I'm sure she doesn't like Mina getting arrested any more than the rest of us do."

Nayeon sighs, fingers curling into the edges of the blanket around her shoulders as she retreats further into it. "Fine. Momo, you're going to talk with her again, then?"

"Me, actually." Sana grins. "It's been five years since she's been graced with my charms, you know."

" _Charms_?" Momo gags behind her.

"I'll come," Jihyo offers. She raises her eyebrows at Nayeon's pout. "What? I miss her." But her voice softens. "You could come, too."

Nayeon pauses, and Sana can see the turmoil in her eyes -- a sort of battle for which the best outcome is only a stalemate. So Sana isn't surprised when Nayeon just shakes her head, lips pressing into a thin line and offering a simple, "good luck." 

And Sana understands. Because it’s always easiest to feel the weight of responsibility when you think that you’ve utterly failed it. Even when Nayeon hasn't, really.

If Sana's being fair, the blame falls on eight of them for letting Tzuyu slip away, and on Tzuyu for thinking that she never had another choice. But if Sana indulges the philosophical, the introspection Mina often teases her for -- "Hey, isn't brooding _my_ job?" -- she knows that the real reason is this literally intangible thing that somehow still has the entire town suffocating in its wispy palm. 

Mina knows this, too. Which is why Sana now has to figure out how to break into a jail, how to whisk Mina out of this stupid town with its stupid mine and its stupid, stupid dream.

Sana clears her throat. "We'll need the others, too. No one should have a shift scheduled til early afternoon -- I checked -- so we can meet in a few hours and start talking about a plan."

Nayeon straightens, the blanket slipping slightly off of one of her shoulders. Her lip twitches, threatening to pull up into a smile. "You're serious about this, huh?"

"Of course she is," says Momo. "Mitang is gone. Shouldn't we all be ready to get her back?"

"We are." Jihyo threads her fingers in between Nayeon's, behind their backs where they think Sana can't see. "Unnie, you and Momo could go round the others up and bring them back here while Sana and I go get Tzuyu."

Nayeon hesitates. "You know, I'm supposed to stop you from doing stupid things like this, I think. That's what Mina made me promise."

"What about stupid, _serious_ things?" Momo suggests.

Nayeon lets out a laugh -- short, but her eyes are completely clear. "Okay." And Sana's sure she's squeezing Jihyo's hand just a little bit tighter.

\---  
\--  
-

("I think I like you," Sana said one day, standing in the middle of the kitchen.

" 'Think'?" Mina looked up from her seat at the table, subjecting Sana to one of her rare pouts. "I'm hurt, unnie."

Sana huffed, crossing the distance between them in two broad steps. Mina spun in the wooden chair she was sitting in, arms outstretched just in time for Sana to drop into her lap. "You know that's not what I mean."

"Maybe I _don't_ know," Mina said mildly. She threaded her fingers together, joined hands a familiar warmth resting against Sana's abdomen. "It's hard to tell with you, sometimes."

And Sana knew that. She'll be the first to admit to flirting with Dahyun on an almost daily basis -- impressive considering the doctor barely had a spare hour to herself before the sun was rising again. Chaeyoung, meanwhile, indulges even Sana's closest hugs, the ones that pull the smaller woman so close Momo once commented that they might be stuck together like that permanently. Sana doesn't even let the fact that Nayeon and Jihyo have been together for probably a million years by now, or how Jeongyeon tries to physically repel her with the hardest eye roll known to man, get in the way of _her_ getting in the way of their personal spaces.

"Still," Sana said out loud, "You're different, Minari."

Mina rested a cheek on Sana's shoulder blade. "Is it different enough, though?"

And Sana decided that she should probably answer by twisting to face the younger woman, throwing an arm around Mina's shoulder and leaning in until all she could see in Mina's eyes was her own reflection. She glanced down, curling the hand draped comfortably over Mina's shoulder to brush at the mole dotting the younger woman's cheek. "I think so," she murmured.

Mina licked her lips, and then tilted her chin up the rest of the way to meet Sana's.

Sana pulled back first, but only because she was sure Mina would somehow make a competition out of it otherwise. She said as much out loud, and Mina huffed a soft laugh. Sana turned back around, if only so that Mina could settle her cheek against Sana's shoulder again, just behind Sana's rapidly beating heart. “We should probably tell Momo-unnie,” Mina said.

“Tell me what?” Momo asked as she stepped into the kitchen. Then she paused, blinking slowly at Mina settled on top of the chair, and Sana settled on top of Mina.

The situation isn’t unusual for any pair out of the three of them, to be perfectly honest. And even though Sana could feel exactly how flushed her face was, Momo isn't the type to pick up on those kinds of surface hints. 

Because when Momo met Sana’s gaze, she must have seen from Sana’s expression exactly how much the latter’s thigh was tingling where Mina's pointer finger was tracing lazy circles. And there was no mistaking the feeling of Mina's chin pressing leisurely into Sana's shoulder as the younger woman's smile curled into a wide, cheesy grin. 

“Oh," said Momo.

" _'Oh'_ ?" Sana huffed. "That's all you have to say?" 

"Well, yeah." Momo rolled her eyes. “As if the rest of us didn’t already have a betting pool going.” She passed by them on her way to the far wall, somehow managing to pinch Sana’s arm with one hand while softly patting Mina’s hair with the other. Once she reached the refrigerator, she pulled open the door and ducked down to squint at the contents. “I guess I should thank you two. We’re out of pork again, but Jeongyeon and Dahyun will be paying for it.”

Sana gaped. “They bet _against_ us?”

When Momo straightened, her expression was nothing short of smug. “Actually, they thought you guys would get together faster.”)

-  
\--  
\---

Jihyo lets the two of them walk three entire blocks before she asks, “So how are we going to convince Tzuyu to talk to us? I'm pretty sure none of the Chous are going to appreciate us knocking on their door at three in the morning.”

"We're not going to the Chous'," Sana tells her. "We're going to the hospital."

Jihyo blinks. "I assume you have a logical reason for this."

“Tzuyu’s been down with a cold lately,” Sana explains. "Usually she sees another doctor at the hospital for it, and at odd times of the night so she doesn't stir up too many rumors among the common populace." 

" 'Common populace'?" Jihyo laughs. "Careful, you're starting to sound like Chaeyoung."

"I think Chaeyoung is the smartest one out of all of us," Sana says sincerely, but she giggles all the same before continuing. "Anyway, there’s no reason Dahyun can’t step in for him today, especially when she still owes me a favor.”

Jihyo makes a face. “I’m pretty sure this goes against at least five patient privacy laws.”

“Maybe.” Sana shrugs before she adds, “but there may also be worse things.”

"Like my knees?"

Sana trips over a crack in the walkway. She catches herself just in time, with the help of Jihyo's steady arm already wrapped around her waist.

"I can tell what you guys are thinking." Jihyo withdraws her hold as Sana finds solid footing again, her voice a careful monotone. "You and Nayeon-unnie especially. The look in your eyes when you think I'm not also aware of every single step I've taken after that cave-in."

"Sorry." Sana carefully reaches out with one hand. When Jihyo doesn't object, she pulls the younger woman into a warm embrace. "It's not out of pity, though."

"I know," Jihyo murmurs, turning so her nose presses into Sana's shoulder. Sana feels each exhale: bursts of heat that seep through cotton and brush her skin like a painting with too much orange -- too hot, too pained, and yet mellowed by only resignation. Then Jihyo heaves a larger sigh. "But I think Nayeon-unnie would try to move an entire mountain for me if it turns out I couldn't climb it."

Sana pats the younger woman's back, feeling the bony ridges of a spine bent under the metric tons of rock and earth Jihyo has probably already excavated by now. And Sana thinks that Jihyo shouldn't be the one to carry all of this. Jihyo shouldn't have been the first in the tunnels out of all of them, two younger sisters and a sick father forcing her out of school before she could learn much beyond the fact that life is too damn unfair, sometimes. 

"Nayeon-unnie does so much for me," Jihyo whispers. "And all I do is keep asking her for more."

Sana stills. "It's not like that, and you know it."

Jihyo barks a laugh, but Sana keeps her close even as she tries to pull away. "You don't have to pretend for me."

"I'm not," Sana insists. “You can’t put a value on these things.” Jihyo scoffs, and she adds, "You're like a painting."

"A painting," Jihyo deadpans.

"A famous one," Sana says. "In one of those big museums, one that's worth millions."

Jihyo raises her eyebrows. "Okay, I'm listening."

Sana grins. "That huge price tag? The museum, the tourists, the world -- they're the ones that put it there. But do you think that the true value of that painting can really be put into numbers?" She leans in close, a smirk coloring her next words. "You're priceless, Jihyo-yah."

"Back off, Minatozaki." Jihyo shoves a fist into her shoulder and Sana does step away, giggling because Jihyo is laughing now, too. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were flirting."

Sana winks. And then throws both hands up in front of her to avoid further punching. "What I _mean_ to say, Park Jihyo, is that Nayeon-unnie is only able to move mountains for you because she knows that you're more than worth it." Sana rubs at her sore arm. "Actually, maybe you could move that mountain on your own, anyway, if your left hook is already that strong."

Jihyo laughs again, eyes sparkling, and Sana doesn't hesitate to throw an arm around her shoulders this time.

Five minutes later, they arrive at the hospital. A drowsy receptionist points them down the hallway with the room Doctor Kim is currently attending to. 

Sana throws open the door with little preamble, and runs head-on into Tzuyu's deer-in-the-headlights stare.

Their youngest is taller than Sana remembers, even though she already towered over the rest of them long before high school. The lighter streaks dyeing her hair before have long grown out, too, and she stands stiffer than that one time in grade seven when she had to give a presentation in front of the entire school on why dogs are better than cats. 

"Hi," says Sana brightly.

"You've got to be kidding me," is all Tzuyu says.

Dahyun, standing on the other side of the patient bed like it's a shield, gives a weak grin. "Surprise."

Tzuyu turns to pin her with a glare. "You set this up?"

Dahyun takes a physical step back. "Hey, don't blame me. Sana-unnie asked me to switch with Doctor Choi, and I still owe her for Mina and the ice cream anyway."

Tzuyu gapes. "That was literally fifteen years ago, unnie."

"Aw," Sana coos with a grin, "you remember."

Jihyo clears her throat. "We just thought you'd like to help us get Mina back."

Tzuyu's face immediately clouds.

Sana thinks of the day they were all standing at the front doors to the only high school in town, watching their youngest walk right past them without a single backward glance. And maybe those doors are cursed, because one day Jihyo was no longer there, and then Nayeon. Soon afterwards, Chaeyoung didn't see a point in an education when they'd just be digging for hope the rest of their lives, and Momo also lost interest since her sister hadn't even made it to high school in the first place. 

Sana eventually left, too. Because maybe if they found oneirium before Mina or Dahyun or Jeongyeon or Tzuyu could graduate, that meant at least some of their friend group would never have to know anything beyond cramming for finals and negotiating curfews with their parents so they could stay at the school dance for a few hours longer.

But maybe, Sana thinks now as she carefully watches Tzuyu's expression, there are situations even darker than those stupid tunnels that most of them ended up in, anyway.

"I should've stopped it," Tzuyu says, quiet. "Mina-unnie from confronting my parents, or at least from getting arrested."

Dahyun stops fiddling with the stethoscope draped haphazardly around her neck. It succumbs to gravity and drops to the ground with a dull clatter. 

"We know it's complicated," Jihyo finally offers into the thick silence.

Sana nods quickly. "We're going to break her out of jail, Tzuyu-yah. But we need your help." And then, because she wouldn't ever think of doing anything else, Sana steps forward and grasps Tzuyu's fingers in hers.

The youngest freezes. 

"Your hands are warm," Sana tells her softly.

Tzuyu blinks once, twice, and then too many times to count. But she only needs half a shuffle to throw her arms around Sana and pull the older woman into a tight hug. Dahyun and Jihyo are quick to jump into the pile, and the four of them pretend not to hear as Tzuyu muffles her tears with Sana's shoulder. 

\---  
\--  
-

(In retrospect, Sana should have said something the day Mina told her.

Mina was lying on the couch, face up and head settled comfortably on the armrest. Her eyes were already closed, which probably meant she was napping -- she'd had a double shift to deal with, after all. She'd managed to shower, at least, before collapsing in the living room, since her parents had already taken up one bed in the Myoui bedroom and her brother was currently hogging the other. 

Sana's own shift started in just under an hour, which meant she had to leave the Dojo in less than five minutes. But she couldn't help padding up to the couch, anyway. Her fingers drifted before she could stop them, gently brushing aside damp strands that probably smelled of whatever flower-scented shampoo Momo's sister had recently stocked the bathroom with. She bent over and pressed a kiss to Mina's forehead.

Lavender, she thought of the shampoo as Mina's eyes fluttered open.

Sana pouted. "You were just pretending to be asleep?"

"I was only dozing, unnie." Mina giggled softly. "Don't you have to go soon?"

"No," Sana said, and Mina saw through her lie. "Not when you're here, 'only dozing'."

"I'll be awake when you come back," Mina promised. "I want to talk with you about something, anyway."

Sana raised her eyebrows. "What kind of something?"

Mina chuckled. "What I've been spending time in the library for these past few months."

" _Mina_ ," Sana's pout was automatic, "we finished with school _ages_ ago. And the library is even _more_ boring."

"You might find this interesting," Mina promised. Her fingers twitched, and Sana noticed them twisting tightly into the hem of Mina's shirt.

Sana decided not to press, and hummed instead. "Okay, if you say so. I'll come back soon then." 

Mina only nodded, raising both arms. Sana grinned, immediately straightening to step around the armrest and dive in for a hug. But Mina shook her head; now the younger girl was the one to stick her lower lip out. " _Unnie_."

Sana paused, and then her smile widened. "Oh." And braced her hands on either side of Mina's head before leaning down again. Mina's fingers threaded softly through her hair before gently tugging her the rest of the way. 

Sana ended up clocking in two minutes late, but she'd honestly miss an entire double shift just for the quiet press of Mina's kiss on her forehead.

And she'd definitely break into the town jail just for the secret Mina murmured to her in the darkness of the kitchen only nine hours later.)

-  
\--  
\---

"So," says Chaeyoung, glancing around the Ims' living room. They'd been used to eight for a while, but it was a different head count this time; Sana ignores the twinge in her chest in favor of the hand now clutched tightly around her wrist. Chaeyoung, meanwhile, lifts her shoulders in a careless shrug. "What's going on, exactly?"

"Tzuyu will tell us," Sana decides. Tzuyu's eyes widen, and she shrinks a little further behind Sana. But Sana pushes her forward, because this is definitely the first step to mending many broken bridges.

"Come on, maknae." Jeongyeon's smile is tired, but Sana feels Tzuyu straighten slightly at the label she hasn't heard in years. "You owe us that much."

All eyes fall on Tzuyu.

The youngest hesitates. Clears her throat, opens her mouth -- but nothing comes out.

"It's okay."

The entire room's attention snaps to Nayeon, but she's only looking at Tzuyu. The eldest has her arms crossed, and her lips are set in a straight line, but the shine in her eyes softens her words more than anything else she's struggling to hold back. Sana wants to hug her, but Jihyo already has it covered with nothing more than a gentle hand on Nayeon's elbow.

Tzuyu swallows, and then glances down to speak to the carpeted floor. "There are three families in this town with all the political power."

Jihyo nods encouragingly. "The Ha family. Directly related to our founder and first mayor."

"Also the Yoos," Jeongyeon adds, and then holds up her hands. "No relation."

"And the Chous," Chaeyoung finishes.

Tzuyu nods. "Leadership has remained with these three families for all these years because we have a secret to protect." She exhales, and then looks up. "There's no oneirium."

Jeongyeon's jaw tightens. Dahyun closes her eyes for a long moment, while Chaeyoung just slouches further into her corner of the worn sofa. No one catches Jihyo stumbling, because Nayeon already has a reassuring arm resting on her shoulders. 

"Mina-unnie found out," Tzuyu continues quickly. "She went through the archives in the library, found some documents somehow and made the connections. Then I guess she told Momo-unnie and Sana-unnie, and then Momo-unnie came to ask me if it was true, and the next thing I know Mina-unnie's out of my house faster than she was invited inside, and -- "

"And we're going to get her out," Sana says, shifting their elbows so she can squeeze Tzuyu's hand in hers. "Out of jail, out of town, whatever it takes."

"We should all go," Nayeon cuts in. She glances around the room. "Out of here, I mean."

Dahyun blinks. "What, out of town? And just leave _everyone_?"

"We'd come back." Momo sits up now, and Sana feels only relief flood her as the other woman smiles for the first time in days. "You guys know now that there's _literally_ nothing here, right? So why wait around? We'll ditch town, find somewhere else that actually has _something_ , and then come back for everyone else."

Jeongyeon folds her arms over her chest. "That's a little too idealistic, don't you think?"

"I think we could use some dreams," Jihyo says.

"Actually," Tzuyu begins. She's still a little stiff as the rest of them direct their attention to her again. But then she takes a breath and lets go of Sana's hand. "I'm planning on running for election next year. And if I win, I can get Mina pardoned. They're not going to do anything with her until then, anyway. The more fuss that's caused, the more people will start wondering."

Chaeyoung suddenly sits up and laughs. “Tzuyu, you and I are barely twenty. No need to be so _practical_." She grins almost lazily as she leans back into the couch again. "I'm with Momo-unnie. Think along the lines of the impossible, you know?”

"Alright, fine," Jeongyeon huffs. "For the record," she holds up a finger, "I still think we're going to be doomed."

"But?" Sana prompts.

"But," Jeongyeon says with a sigh, "I guess we can use my truck. Not sure how all of us are going to fit, though -- "

"We'll fit," says Sana, beaming. Because she knows that even though her heart is much smaller than Jeongyeon's rickety old pickup, she definitely has no problem safely tucking eight others inside of it.

\---  
\--  
-

(Sana had lost Mina once, when they were small. 

They'd all grown up on the same street or the next one over, Momo and Sana always tripping over each other while Jeongyeon ran after them waving a box of bandaids bigger than her face would ever be. Nayeon would always be cackling at the entire scene, rolling in the grass even as Jihyo whined at her to get up and be the responsible unnie for once, especially since she's supposed to be babysitting Chaeyoung and Tzuyu.

One time, Mina and Dahyun had gone to get ice cream while the rest of them tore around Jeongyeon's front yard. But ten minutes later -- an eternity according to the clocks of children -- only a distraught Dahyun returned; she'd lost Mina somewhere along chasing after the ice cream truck. 

Nayeon immediately hugged the younger girl, Jihyo patting Dahyun's head softly and Momo offering a half-melted hard candy from the depths of her sticky pocket. Jeongyeon ran up the front porch steps to find her mom, because moms always know what to do; then she ran back, grabbed Chaeyoung and Tzuyu each by a hand, and ran off again, one toddler waddling rapidly on either side of her.

Meanwhile, Sana took it upon herself to go and find Mina. She dashed up the street, waving at any adults standing in the yards she passed. “Have you seen Mina? She’s about this short, and has hair up to here, and, and, she likes penguins and eats her sandwiches with her pinkies sticking up!”

Eventually, Sana did find her -- most likely because they were two primary school kids aimlessly wandering through the late afternoon, and adults tend to notice these things. Once reunited, Sana immediately tackled Mina into a tight hug. 

The younger girl flailed a little, struggling to transfer all the slippery packets of ice cream to one hand and grip the front of Sana's shirt with the other; she'd successfully purchased the treats almost a whole hour previously, before she'd turned around and discovered that Dahyun was nowhere to be seen. 

Now, Mina buried her face into Sana's shoulder, trying hard not to cry -- because she wasn't scared, anymore.

Sana brought Mina back to Jeongyeon's front yard, their hands clammy with melted sugar and midsummer sweat. And looking back, Sana thinks this was the first time that she decided she'd never let go of Mina again.)

-  
\--  
\---

The plan comes together surprisingly well.

Tzuyu manages to get the timetable for the police station shifts, and that's enough for Sana to clumsily bump into the day guard just a block away from the station on his way home from work, lifting his keys in the process.

The night shift doesn’t get sufficiently sleepy until one in the morning, of course, which is why Dahyun waits until half past one to make her call. Sana and Momo are lurking outside, under the open window next to the guard desk, so they get a perfect earful of the lone officer trying to take notes on the doctor’s sudden emergency. 

“Uh huh. A bunch of drugs -- chemicals? Yes Doctor, that’s not good at all. What’d you say they were? Sodium -- sodium bicarbonate? Uh huh. Dihydrogen -- come again? Dihydrogen monoxide, got it. And acetic acid? Sounds like a dangerous cocktail, Doctor. I’ll be over right away.”

“That seriously worked?” Momo deadpans once the guard has hastily locked the station door behind him and hustled down the road towards the hospital. “I didn’t even finish high school, and I can tell that all those can just be found in the cafeteria.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, Momoring,” Sana chuckles as she straightens from their crouch in the bushes. “Some people never paid _any_ attention in chemistry class, even if food was involved.” 

The door swings open easily enough, courtesy of Sana’s filched keys, and Momo takes her lookout spot by the window as Sana dashes through the small bullpen to the holding cell. 

Mina’s already standing at the bars, smile wide as Sana skids to a stop in front of her. “You got Dahyun to help, I hear?”

“I got _everyone_ to help.” Sana thinks her own grin is probably bordering on maniacal glee, but she couldn’t care less for looks at the moment. “Tzuyu’s the one who got us the guard shifts. Otherwise you'd have been in here for an entire week, at least.” 

Mina's smile widens further. "I'll have to thank her, then." She watches Sana bend down to examine the lock. “He took the keys with him, I think.”

Sana flips through her stolen key ring. “I suppose another copy wouldn’t be on here.”

“Probably not,” Mina agrees. “Do you have a hairpin?”

Sana does, and she drops it into Mina’s outstretched hand. The younger woman presses her face against the bars and squints, the tip of her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth as she fiddles with the lock. A few seconds later, it pops open and the door swings out. 

Sana blinks. “How did you...”

“I had to learn _something_ to keep up with your pick-pocketing skills,” Mina says matter-of-factly. She holds out the hairpin as she steps out of the cell. “Here -- “

Sana’s hug knocks the rest of her sentence into a rush of air, but Mina only takes a split second to wrap her arms around Sana just as tightly. 

“Next time you want to prove a point,” Sana murmurs into the younger woman's neck, “you don’t have to make all of us skip town for it.” 

Mina pulls back a little. “What do you mean by ‘all of us’ -- ?”

“Uh, guys,” Momo whispers urgently from the window. “Might want to wrap it up. I think he’s coming back already.”

“ _’All of us’_?” Mina presses even as Sana grabs her hand and drags her back through the bullpen. 

“Well, it was sort of an all-or-nothing kind of operation,” says Sana breathlessly as they pause at the door. Momo has her back pressed hard against the wall as she continues to peer cautiously out the window. Sana, pulling Mina along with, mimics her stance against the wall before continuing, "And we were tired of finding nothing."

"Unnies, are you _insane_?" Mina hisses. "They're not just going to let the eight -- the nine of us leave and do nothing about it. What about our parents, and -- "

"Logic will have to wait, Mitang," Momo says as she reaches out for the doorknob. "Get ready to run when I say so -- okay, now!"

The three of them burst out of the station, Sana tossing the keys just a meter from the startled officer's feet. They skirt around him and rush down the sidewalk, Momo shouting a quick "Sorry, Jackson!" just before Jeongyeon's truck roars around the corner. 

The vehicle screeches to a stop at the curb. Chaeyoung is crouched at the back of the truck bed, hand outstretched. Somewhere from the truck cab, Nayeon shouts, "Go go go!" as Chaeyoung pulls Mina up, then Sana. Jeongyeon steps on the gas just as Momo grabs the edge of the truck bed with both hands, vaulting herself onto the vehicle a millisecond before Jeongyeon's pickup lurches into a hundred-kilometers-per-hour escape.

The momentum shoots Momo straight into Chaeyoung, bowling the both of them over and into Sana, who hadn't thought to step out of the way. Mina does try to tug her to the side, but ends up being jerked into the jumbled mess of limbs that slams into the pile of luggage bags stacked against the back of the truck cab.

The window between them and the cab slides open, and Nayeon peeks through. "Hey, watch yourselves. If you fall off, we're not coming back for you."

"Tell Jeongyeon-unnie to drive better," Chaeyoung grumbles from somewhere beneath Momo's torso and Sana's knee. 

"Sorry," Jeongyeon hollers above the wind whistling in their ears. "I'll install seat belts back there for the next time you guys decide to become fairy tale runaways."

"Also," Nayeon says, "Make sure none of those bags fall off. There aren't many shirts in Chaeyoung's size, so if we lose one -- "

"Unnie, be nice," Jihyo laughs over Chaeyoung's indignant protests. She shoves the older woman away from the window before turning around and giving Mina a big smile -- the kind that Nayeon often complains about for causing hearts to actually melt. "What she means is, welcome back. From all of us."

Mina laughs, helping Chaeyoung up now that Momo has figured out the best way to roll to the opposite side of the truck bed. "It's good to be back." She straightens and peers through the window opening: Jihyo's in the middle of the backseat with Nayeon and Tzuyu to her right and left, and Dahyun had apparently claimed shotgun. "Everyone...all of you came?"

"Of course they did," Sana says. She finally manages to scramble upright, only to throw herself onto Mina a moment later. 

"Nayeon-unnie," Mina whines, "I _told_ you not to let them do something like this."

"It's okay," Momo tells Mina with a grin. "Maybe it'll turn out better than you think."

"We're already out of town," Chaeyoung adds, just as they blast past the "Welcome to" sign. "And no one's following us so far. Another half hour and we'll even have all of the mines behind us."

Mina hums, and then lets herself slouch a little so she can curl into Sana's side, both of their backs leaning against the wall of the truck bed. She rests her head on Sana's shoulder. "This is better than sitting in jail, at least. None of them would even play checkers with me."

"We can play as much as you want, now," Sana murmurs, softly stroking Mina's hair. "See how many times you can say 'king me' before you win, again."

Mina's laugh kisses Sana's neck before it gets lost in the wind howling in their ears. Sana leans back, just a little over the side of the truck, to catch a glimpse of the road ahead of them.

She thinks that the mountains in the distance might just have what they've been looking for all this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should really stop making update promises I can't keep...but better late than never? Hope you enjoyed, and thanks for joining me on this admittedly weird twice miner au journey

**Author's Note:**

> second part will be up within the week if all goes well. feel free to yell at me (nicely?) on Twitter (@moonrise31) until then


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